National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme – Strengthening India’s Manpower

by Automotive Skills Development Council Automotive Training Center in India

In order to encourage skill development and entrepreneurship in India, government of India, introduced National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) – a scheme aiming to promote apprenticeship. Launched in August 2016, NAPS intends to incentivise employers by contributing 25% of the stipend to be paid to the apprentices. Additionally, training cost upto INR 7500 for 500 hours for three months per apprentice has also been promised to be given to the trainees.

With a motive to provide training and placements to 50 lakh Indian youth tentatively by 2020, NAPS works with the motive of building up a massive pool of skilled manpower with the tagline – “Kaushal Bharat – Kushal Bharat”. NAPS also supports the government aided – Automotive Skills Development Council (ASDC), which is working successfully in providing diverse courses and jobs to aspiring technicians and mechanics.

Talking about the automotive sector, NAPS has been supporting this industry tremendously by persuading the automotive giants to hire more and more trainees and interns while also providing them with stipends. However, as India endeavours to rank first in the global automotive market, some impediments still restrain us from meeting the demand of this constantly budding industry.

Why Apprentice Training?

According to statistics, countries like Germany, Japan, and China have 3 million, 10 million and 20 million apprentices respectively whereas India encompasses only 0.4 million of workforce which is just 0.1% of the total employed workforce. It proves that India holds such a huge potential which is yet to be harnessed.

To overcome these challenges, NAPS has various sub-schemes associated with it. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) is one such scheme that was introduced to impart skill-based training to young men and women. It aims to make them capable to earn for themselves and support the country’s associated schemes. To facilitate this, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), provides incentives to the employers for active participation in apprentice training and recruiting trainees.

Result

With the emergence of training programmes for apprentices, developing skilled manpower to meet the demands of the global market has become easier. Government run training facilities have enabled the apprentices to work on their own work stations that eliminate the need of setting up a separate infrastructure. Undeniably, the apprenticeship training initiative is aimed to accelerate the automotive development to a greater extent.